Sometime after last May's Upfronts [1], CBS quietly picked up a comedy series about an eccentric group of people living in a fabled Los Angeles apartment building. Good thing they got it: With The Big Bang Theory [2] out of episodes, Welcome to the Captain [3] will take over its 8:30 p.m. Monday slot on the network's schedule starting Feb. 4.

The show comes from writer John Hamburg, who made his name whipping out movies for Ben Stiller (including Zoolander and Meet the Parents). Since it focuses on a group of wildly different strangers, it's no surprise that the cast is equally eclectic: Jeffery Tambor, Raquel Welch, Chris Klein, and Freaks and Geeks [4] alum Joanna Garcia are among the stars.

The show looks a lot different from the other CBS comedies: It's shot in a style more like The Office [5] than Two and a Half Men. That, for me, is good news, though I know millions of people like their CBS comedies just the way they are. The bad news is that none of the clips I've watched so far have made me laugh out loud — but maybe it's the kind of show that needs a full episode to get into a groove. To watch a clip introducing the residents of The Captain, just .